BLUISH
by mst37
Summary: "...Marissa was forced to return her gaze to the boy. He must have remembered her; because he looked just as -if not more- ill at ease..." - RM/SS - AU.


_AN: I've noticed that there aren't too many RM stories floating around these days, so I've decided to give one a go :) _

_It's an AU…and when I say AU I mean it haha… the main things you'd want to know…_

_RM/SS are all in year 12…making them 'Seniors', I believe…? (sorry I'm Australian)_

_There's a bit of a role reversal in that Ryan is Harbor King while Marissa is the new girl in town. In saying that, I should probably add that the Atwoods in this story are wealthy and upper-class (weird to consider I know, but work with me here!)_

_(something that is probably even weirder to consider…) Seth is popular in this story, since he's best friends with Ryan…but Summer still isn't interested in him._

_I've written enough in this first post for you to be able see where I'm going with it all…so please please review if you'd like me to keep going with it :) _

…..…..…..

**BLUISH**

**Chapter 1**

**Her Disappearing Theme.**

The first thing she registered upon waking was that feeling in the pit of her stomach. That feeling she always had when she felt worried or guilty about something or someone. It took her a few moments of pondering to remember why she was worried.

It was Monday. Her first day at Harbor.

She felt her stomach sink.

When she squinted towards her bedside alarm clock to check the time she felt her stomach sink even further.

It was 5:15 AM. Her room was still pitch black.

She let out a helpless sigh. There was no way she was going to be able to get back to sleep now; which meant that she had around 2 hours of inevitable fretting and nervousness ahead of her.

She had absolutely no idea why she was so anxious. She was usually so confident and so poised when it came to meeting new people; making new friends; and travelling to new places. In fact, only last year she'd travelled to France, alone, and stayed with a French family she'd never met before for over 3 months. Despite being totally unfamiliar with her surroundings and with the people she'd encountered, she hadn't felt intimidated in the slightest throughout the entire trip.

And now here she was – in sunny California – not alone but with her family; frightened to no end at the prospect of a day at Harbor High.

She let out another heavy sigh and pushed herself out of bed. Perhaps indulging in a hot coffee and some early morning cartoons might settle her nerves.

She trudged down the hall and yawned, silently contemplating whether to opt for a hot coffee or a hot chocolate.

"Shit!" She cursed, instantly stopping in her tracks and grabbing her now-jarred toe. Walking into tables was always fun.

After a few moments of cringing in pain, she made a quick mental note to be more careful when ambling around her new and unfamiliar house in the dark; and proceeded towards the stairs leading down towards the kitchen.

After preparing for herself a coffee and a bowl of cereal, she settled down on the couch and flicked on the absurdly wide plasma screen TV that hung on the lounge room wall.

Proactive Infomercial. Next. Ab-King Pro Infomercial. Even worse. Re-runs of the Letterman show. Next. A weather report with German subtitles. She gave up.

Re-watching her Gossip Girl season 3 DVD (for about the 35th time) would have to suffice. Anything to keep her mind off the day ahead…

…..

Marissa raised her eyebrows in awe as she entered the Harbor School gates. The luxuriant gardens that lined either side of the entrance; along with the large, ornate fountain that the entrance path weaved around; were enough to make her feel as though she was walking into a 5-star beach resort rather than a High School.

There were people everywhere: sitting, standing, strolling, and some even skateboarding around the campus. As Marissa continued to observe the Harbor students around her, she couldn't help but notice a prevailing trend in their appearance: blonde hair, abnormally tanned skin, and gleaming white teeth. Pale coloured polo shirts (for guys) and ridiculously short denim skirts (for girls) were also commonplace, from what she could gather.

Luckily, with it being the first day back after a long summer break, most of the students seemed too consumed in their holiday gossip to pay Marissa any heed as she wandered around in search of some kind of a map. The last thing she wanted was to have to approach a random student and ask them for directions to the Main Office.

After at least 5 minutes of aimlessly wandering around the paths of Harbor, Marissa finally spotted an arrowed sign reading 'Main Office'.

No map needed. She sighed in relief and trudged her way towards the large building to which the arrow pointed.

"Good morning, how can I help you?" The receptionist asked Marissa as she approached the foyer desk. She reminded Marissa all too much of her mother: the dyed red/brown hair; the botoxed lips and face; the excessive amount of makeup; not to mention the fake, poison smile she had plastered across her face. Marissa forced a smile back.

"Hi, um, I'm a new student. My name's Marissa Cooper"

"Ah, I see" The receptionist nodded and picked up a collection of files that were stacked on her desk. "…Cooper…Cooper…" She muttered absently under her breath as she shuffled through the sheets.

"Here we are" She quickly double-checked the documents in front of her before sliding them across the desk to Marissa. "Details of your timetable and your locker; and a map of the school in case you find yourself getting lost" She explained.

Marissa nodded and looked at the lady blankly; obviously expecting to hear some further information. But the lady simply stared back.

"Enjoy your first day" She flashed her yet another fake smile and Marissa once again forced one right back.

"Thanks." She said dryly, before turning away and ambling out of the foyer slowly. She silently fretted over where she should go next.

She located her timetable in amongst the small collection of sheets she'd been handed and examined it closely.

Monday supposedly started with Homeroom in K201. Now what did that mean?

She bit her lip and shuffled through her sheets until she found the school map.

She spotted a 'Building B'. Next, a 'Building D'. She couldn't help but chuckle to herself when she noticed a 'Building P'. The fact that there were at least 16 buildings in the school said it all really.

'Building K' was located close by 'Building O'. And, fortunately for her, she noticed both buildings were very near to the Main Office.

After a good 5 minutes worth of navigating, Marissa was standing outside a door marked 'K201'. After taking a deep breath (and mentally kicking herself for being so needlessly anxious), she opened the door and, as inconspicuously as possible, entered the room.

…..

Ryan cursed under his breath as he dropped to his knees to open his newly allocated locker.

"Watch your head!"

He glanced up at the annoying brunette towering over him, and immediately ducked his head to avoid the door that was swinging towards his face.

Great. His new locker buddy was none other than Taylor Townsend…just when he thought being assigned a bottom locker was enough of a misfortune.

"Hey" He felt a hand pat him on the head, and he looked up once again. It was her. Was he really going to have to get used to being pattedon the head by Taylor Townsend every morning?

"Yeah?" He looked back into his locker and tugged out his Chemistry text book.

"What do you have first?"

"Um, Chemistry" He replied, flinging his door shut and pushing himself up onto his feet.

"Ooh, with Mr. Kerr?"

Ryan felt his stomach sink. He glanced down at his timetable to double check (on the off chance that he'd read it wrong earlier). But no. Mr. Kerr was most definitely his Chemistry teacher for this year.

"Uh, yeah…good old Mr. Kerr" He nodded.

"Oh goodie! Me too!" She beamed "Walk together?"

"Of course" He pressed his lips together in a strained smile before following her lead.

…..

"And she just kept bugging me about getting a job over summer. She was like 'Oh, Taylor, you've got to start being more responsible'…and 'oh, Taylor, you've got to start being more independent.' And I'm like, 'mum, I was social chair last year; I'll probably be social chair again this year; I've been the lead in every musical I've been in since Junior High. Like, what more do you want from me?' You know what I mean?"

Ryan forced a sympathetic smile. "Mmm, I…yeah…totally know what you mean" He nodded. She continued to rant and rave about her mother (but more so about and herself) as they walked back to their lockers; and Ryan continued to stare at her blankly and nod every half-minute or so.

He was desperately trying to figure out how someone could be so loquacious, so self-consumed, and, ultimately…so _annoying_.

Luckily, he was saved from his despair the moment they arrived at their lockers.

"Atwood!" Luke Ward, one of his best friends, came up and hugged him from behind. "I missed you buddy"

"You saw me 2 days ago" Ryan chuckled, shrugging him off gently and kneeling down to his locker.

"Yeah, well I missed you in those 48 hours man"

Ryan smirked and exchanged his Chemistry supplies for some Calculus ones.

"What've you got now?"

"Calculus with Mrs. Taylor"

"Nerd"

"What about you?" Ryan disregarded his friend's usual 'you're-a-nerd' ridicule and stood up.

"I've got English with the new girl." Luke replied with a wink.

"Ah." Ryan nodded "So you're in love with a new teacher this year are you Ward?"

Luke furrowed his brow as they began to walk towards their classes. "What? No, no. My heart will always be with Ms. Masons." He insisted. "But that wasn't what I meant anyway. I meant the new girl as in…the new _student_." He explained. This didn't make things any clearer to Ryan.

"New girl?"

"Yeah, you haven't met her yet?"

"Nope" Ryan shook his head "But…actually…I think a few of the guys in Chemistry were talking about some new girl. Apparently she's hot or something"

Luke laughed. "Yeah, I can confirm that. She is _banging_, Atwood. Absolutely _banging_" He looked ahead languorously and Ryan didn't even want to consider what kind of fantasies he was conjuring in his head at that moment.

"I see. Well, I have a girlfriend, so I'm not that fussed. But if you want me to play wing-man or something along those lines…I'm here for you" He smiled.

"Well I'm thinking there will be a lot of competition, so a wing-man could come in handy. But I'll see if I can work my magic in English and get back to you on that one."

"Alright" Ryan laughed "Well my math class is on the other side of campus so I've gotta run…but good luck with the 'new girl'"

"Haha thanks man, see you at lunch"

…..

Marissa threw her bag over her shoulder and let out a heavy sigh. Thankfully, it wasn't a sigh of exasperation; but one of relief. Her first day had travelled more than smoothly. Everyone was so much more welcoming than she'd begun to anticipate after her early encounter with the bitchy receptionist at Main Office. In fact, certain people were _overly _welcoming…(certain people being all the males she'd met that day).

Boys were opening doors for her left, right and centre. Every time the bell had sounded, one would, without fail, offer to escort her to her next class. She had been chaperoned to her French class by 4 guys; none of which were actually _in_ the class.

Sure, she'd grown used to that sort of male attention; but she wasn't used to receiving so much that she had at times felt beset and uncomfortable. While all the guys were friendly; and most were also nice – some were painfully brainless and transparent. It was those few fitting the latter description that had made her feel uncomfortable at times. Kevin Volchek was a perfect case in point. As Marissa had entered her English class room; he had decided to pull the 'drop-pen-on-floor-as-girl-walks-past' trick. She remembered stopping in her tracks and looking at him hesitantly, obviously clueless as to how she should react. He had a challenging smirk plastered across his (annoyingly gorgeous) face; and what made her even more bothered was that everyone in the class had began to watch the scene. Thankfully, a bold brunette (who later introduced herself as Summer Roberts) had the initiative to stand up and kindly stomp on his pen until it was shattered.

Marissa had later learned; after spending the remains of the class sitting with Summer and her friends; that Volchek was Harbor High's resident 'bad boy'…and that he often went to all lengths to sustain this reputation. The girls had also informed her of some other information about the Harbor High social bubble that they felt was important: who hated who, who was dating who, who sat where at lunch, which teachers they hated…etcetera etcetera.

Marissa had initially doubted that the social dynamics at Harbor could be summed up so easily; however after spending much of her lunch observing the clearly defined cliques that were scattered around the quadrangle; she began to realise just how terrifyingly accurate Summer and her friends had been.

Marissa was so consumed in her thoughts that she almost didn't register her name being called from across the hall.

"Coop!"

She spun around to see Summer waving her over with a big grin on her face. Marissa smiled and began to weave her way through the crowd of bodies; eventually arriving by her new friend's side.

"Hey Sum" She looked from Summer to the boy standing next to her…and did an immediate double take. After a few moments of intense eye contact; she finally realised why his blue eyes were familiar, and immediately returned her focus to Summer.

"Oh, I'm guessing you two haven't met" Summer assumed this was what was causing the odd tension between the two. "Coop, this is Ryan…Ryan – Coop" Summer gestured between the two, and Marissa was forced to return her gaze to the boy. He must have remembered her; because he looked just as (if not more) ill at ease.

"Hey" He nodded weakly.

"Hi" She gave him a complementary return nod; and Summer raised her eyebrows at the unusual rigidity of the introduction. She decided to spare the two of any more unease and change the subject.

"So, Coop. I don't know if this is like, 'too soon', or whatever, but a few of us were gonna go for a swim in Holly's pool…if you wanted to come with…?"

Marissa had been so preoccupied with trying to appear unfazed that she had barely heard what Summer had said. Luckily, she'd gathered the general gist.

"Oh…I'd love to, but my parents are making me and my sister come to dinner with our cousins tonight." She explained, silently wondering how she'd managed to produce such an elaborate story out of thin air, and deliver it with such poise.

"Oh" Summer pouted. "Damn. Well – next time then"

"For sure" Marissa smiled.

"Awesome. Well have fun at the dinner then newbie" She smirked and grabbed Ryan's arm. "I'll see you tomorrow"

"Yeah, see you then" Marissa looked up and let her eyes lock with Ryan's for one last brief moment before he was dragged away by Summer.

She couldn't decide what she was feeling at that instant; but she was sure that it was a combination of disbelief, chagrin…and a surprising, bizarre sense of wooziness.

…..…..…..

_AN: Review away if you want more. If not…I'll come back with something different soon :)_


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